Penny Bauder has always been a zealous environmentalist and fondly recalls the days when she lived in Alaska and would kayak for hours out in the frigid Pacific.

After she became a mother and moved to San Diego, she missed the expansive wild of the northern state. And she wanted to instill an environmental conscience in her young, now urban, family.

“I wanted environmentally friendly activities,” said Bauder, who now has two kids, Rowan, 4, and Declan, 18 months. “Because I didn’t see anything out there, I essentially created exactly what I was looking for.”

She founded Green Kid Crafts, a business run by 10 stay-at-home parents scattered across the U.S. who mail out earth-friendly activity kits to subscribers every month. The kits became available north of the border last month; annual subscriptions cost $19.95 U.S. per month, plus shipping, while month-to-month orders cost $23.95.

Past kits have included materials to make origami cats, wooden birdhouses and a pine cone bird feeder.

Green Kid Crafts also has a special craft guide available for download this month — to mark Earth Day on April 22 — which contains instructions on how to recycle things around the house to make homemade rain sticks and paper roll binoculars.

“We are trying to cultivate a love for the environment as well as a future generation of environmental leaders,” said Bauder.

Here are her top five tips on raising green-minded kids:

Unplug your kids: “This can be as simple as playing in the yard or taking them on a nature walk,” said Bauder. “Let them enjoy getting dirty. A love of the outdoors and a dirty kid go hand in hand.”

Have fun recycling: Bauder encourages parents to treat sorting garbage from recycling as a memory game. “They can tell the difference between paper, metal, glass and plastic at an early age,” she said.

Turning off the lights: Another activity Bauder makes a game of is teaching kids to switch off the lights. “I’ll often ‘forget’ to turn off the lights when I leave a room, so she can feel proud of herself for reminding me,” she said of her 4-year-old daughter.

Cool it with the new toys: “Instead of buying your child the newest toy, help them learn to find new uses for their old toys,” said Bauder. “You’re teaching them not only about charity, but about recycling as well.”

Be an eco role model: For Bauder, this is the most important. “If kids see you being lazy and cutting corners, they will understand that it’s OK for them to do the same,” she said.

Paper Roll Binoculars

Easy, DYI binoculars made from recycled paper rolls, some scrap paper and ribbon. Excerpted from the Earth Day Green Kid Crafts guide.

1. Wrap two paper rolls with scrap paper and affix with tape.

2. Use washi tape or another colourful type of tape to join the two paper rolls together.

3. Punch one hole at the top of each of the paper rolls and tie ends of the ribbon to them.

4. Now, use your new binoculars to look around the house to find more things you can reuse.8

More on thestar.com

We value respectful and thoughtful discussion. Readers are encouraged to flag comments that fail to meet the standards outlined in our
Community Code of Conduct.
For further information, including our legal guidelines, please see our full website
Terms and Conditions.